I have a keen interest in athletics and have long researched and experimented with nutrition and exercise to bring more energy to everything that I do. I have also taken several classes in Craniosacral Therapy before my completing my coaching training to become an ADAPT Certified Functional Health Coach. With degrees in music and economics, my background is in studio piano teaching, performing as a concert pianist, and more recently as Executive Director of Conservatory Canada.
I am also curious about the interconnectedness of living things, how we can learn from what nature teachers us, and the importance of finding our inner purpose in guiding our lives. I have been coaching people of all ages in various forms for over thirty years and see health coaching as the perfect expression of all that I have learned and witnessed to this point in my life. This is why I took the Kresser Institute’s ADAPT functional health-coach-training course.
In 2015, I made a rare visit to an allopathic (Western medicine) doctor to check on some swollen lymph nodes that I suspected was an infection. Soon after, an internal medicine specialist diagnosed me with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (one of the more common blood cancers). I was skeptical, but imaging and a biopsy soon confirmed the diagnosis in more horrifying detail: Stage-4 cancer with large bulky tumors throughout my entire abdomen. The largest was the size of a grapefruit invading my left kidney, making it invisible on the scans.
My oncologist warned me that there were high-risk features with the presentation of the disease, but that the tumors may respond well to the standard chemotherapy protocol for this type of lymphoma. After a couple of setbacks, I was able to start the prescribed treatment before the disease claimed me. The next seven months were the most trying of my life, forcing me to consider all alternatives along the way. Eventually, my post-chemo scans showed what appeared to be a complete resolution of the disease and I have had a clean bill of health since 2016.
I enlisted the help of a naturopath to help me detox from the chemotherapy drugs and bring my immune system back online. I have also invested hundreds of hours in researching functional medicine principles and finding alternative ways of approaching health and wellness, while refining my ability to discern which treatments may be useful (as backed by scientific research) and which ones may be ineffective.
I feel more energetic and younger now than I did thirty years ago, with a higher level of physical fitness and much less inflammation. My blood work appears mostly normal, and even my eyesight has improved. None of my oncologists will pronounce me cured, despite being released from the bi-annual checkups at the cancer centre, and they have no advice to offer about preventing a relapse.
The most important lessons I learned from this experience:
- I can trust the power of my mind to control my body.
- There is an overwhelming wealth of alternative health and wellness information on the web that addresses prevention and reversal of disease.
- Despite pulling me back from near death, allopathic ‘standard of care’ medicine was not equipped to ‘cure’ me fully nor prevent this from happening again.
One of my current concerns is the apparent censoring or suppression of helpful online information not found in mainstream media that speaks to prevention of disease and the power of plant-based (herbal) medicines.
I seek to help others refine their discernment so that they can be empowered to find their alternatives, allowing them to take back control over their own health.
